🧮 Data Point: In Your Debt

Private debt is back in France, baby! Not to fuel the next wave of startups, but to quietly clean up the last one.

Private debt is the unsexy cousin of venture capital. Instead of buying equity, funds lend money to companies. In the French tech ecosystem, that usually kicks in post-Series B and beyond, when startups are no longer scrappy but well short of the mythical exit. Think growth financing, acquisition funding, or simply extending runway without diluting founders. Basically, a lifeline.

According to the latest study by France Invest and Deloitte, €15.9B was deployed across 379 deals, up 25% in value and 20% in deal volume compared to 2024. Meanwhile, €14.8B was raised in 2025, an increase of 74% from 2024. Which means while VC funding may be mortally wounded and lies bleeding to death in the street while onlookers ignore the body and go about their day, there’s suddenly a lot more non-dilutive capital sloshing around.

Alas, poor Yorick, this isn’t fueling a new wave of hypergrowth. The main purpose is refinancing, accounting for 42% of invested amounts. In other words, companies (and their PE backers) are extending existing debt rather than rushing into new expansion bets.

For now, those lenders are hoping that this strategy will keep these startups alive and that when it comes to this debt, they'll turn out to be, well, like the Lannisters.

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💸 Weekly Funding Recap: March 20

📇 Company: Cryptio 🏷️ Sectors: Web3, FinTech 🔍 Description: Financial infrastructure platform providing a data layer and ERP-grade applications for digital assets, enabling institutions to reconcile on-chain and off-chain data into audit-ready financial records and manage accounting, treasury, lending, and compliance workflows. 💻 Website: Cryptio 📍 HQ City: Paris 🧗 Round: Series B 💰 Amount Raised: €38.8M 🏦 Investors: BlackFin Capital Partners, Sentinel Global, 1kx, Alven, BlueYard Capital, Ledger Cathay Capital 👨💼👩💼 Founders: Antoine Scalia 🗞️ News: Cryptio raised $45M in Series B to expand its data transformation and ERP platform for regulated digital assets, aiming to become the financial system of record for tokenized finance as institutions scale operations across stablecoins, tokenized securities, and blockchain-based capital markets. | Cryptio, Coindesk

📇 Company: Parallel 🏷️ Sectors: HealthTech, AI & Machine Learning 🔍 Description: Parallel develops AI agents that automate administrative workflows in hospitals, starting with medical coding and expanding to billing and admissions, integrating directly into hospital software systems. 💻 Website: Parallel 📍 HQ City: Paris 🧗 Round: Series A 💰 Amount Raised: €17.3M 🏦 Investors: Index Ventures, Frst, Y Combinator, Hexa, Arthur Mensch, Félix Blossier, Quentin de Metz, Business Angels 👨💼👩💼 Founders: Paul Lafforgue, Thomas Sohet 🗞️ News: Parallel has raised $20M in Series A funding to scale its AI agents designed to automate administrative tasks in healthcare institutions. The round was led by Index Ventures, with participation from existing investor Frst, Y Combinator, Hexa, and several prominent angel investors, including Arthur Mensch (Mistral AI). Originally launched in 2023 as Kiosk, the company pivoted to healthcare in 2024 and now focuses first on medical coding—a critical, time-intensive process tied to 60–80% of hospital revenues. Its AI agents can be deployed within weeks, significantly faster than traditional software integrations. Already live in around 40 hospitals, Parallel plans to expand into billing and admissions workflows, grow its team by ~30 hires in 2026, and scale across Europe and the US. | Maddyness**,** Sifted**,** FrenchWeb**,** Tech EU

📇 Company: Enersweet 🏷️ Sectors: CleanTech, PropTech, SaaS & Enterprise 🔍 Description: Enersweet develops software and digital solutions to support the energy transition of buildings, combining regulatory compliance tools, energy management systems, and a buy-and-build strategy to consolidate a fragmented market. 💻 Website: Enersweet 📍 HQ City: Paris 🧗 Round: Growth 💰 Amount Raised: €15M 🏦 Investors: Ring Capital, Zencap Asset Management, Bpifrance 👨💼👩💼 Founders: Mickaël Cabrol 🗞️ News: Enersweet has raised €45M, including €30M in debt, to accelerate its buy-and-build strategy in the building energy transition market. The round includes equity investment from Ring Capital and debt financing from Zencap Asset Management and Bpifrance, replacing Pictet Asset Management. Founded in 2022, the company has rapidly scaled through five acquisitions, reaching 85 employees, 7,000 clients, and over €10M in revenue by 2025. Enersweet operates across two main segments: software for real estate diagnostics and engineering firms, and regulatory compliance plus energy management solutions for building operators. The new funding will support continued M&A (targeting 2–3 acquisitions per year) and expansion into adjacent areas, including air quality, waste management, and maintenance systems. The company aims to deploy €100M by 2030 and position itself as a leading platform for building decarbonization, driven by increasing regulatory pressure, such as France’s “décret tertiaire.” | Finyear**,** Les Echos

📇 Company: Lupin & Holmes 🏷️ Sectors: Cybersecurity, AI & Machine Learning 🔍 Description: Lupin & Holmes develops Depi, a platform that maps real-world attack paths across software systems by analyzing how multiple vulnerabilities can be combined, shifting security from static detection to dynamic exploitation modeling. 📍 HQ City: Paris 🧗 Round: Pre-Seed 💰 Amount Raised: €5.4M 🏦 Investors: 20VC, Seedcamp, Kima Ventures, Purple Ventures, Business Angels 👨💼👩💼 Founders: Roni Carta 🗞️ News: Lupin & Holmes has raised €5.4M in pre-seed funding to build a new approach to cybersecurity focused on mapping attack paths rather than listing isolated vulnerabilities. Founded in 2023 by Roni Carta—a 23-year-old former top bug bounty hunter who earned ~$800K discovering vulnerabilities for companies like Google, Amazon, and Netflix—the startup brings a hacker-first perspective to security. Its platform, Depi, analyzes how vulnerabilities interact across complex systems (including dependencies, build chains, and configurations) to identify exploitable pathways. Already working with Fortune 500 companies and clients like Ledger, Lupin & Holmes plans to expand its team and invest heavily in R&D to further develop its attack-path intelligence platform. | FrenchWeb**,** Tech EU

📇 Company: games2gether 🏷️ Sectors: Gaming 🔍 Description: Community engagement and co-creation platform for game studios, enabling developers to collaborate with players to gather insights, improve game development, and build more engaged gaming communities. 💻 Website: games2gether 📍 HQ City: Paris 🧗 Round: Series A 💰 Amount Raised: €4.5M 🏦 Investors: Griffin Gaming Partners 👨💼👩💼 Founders: Max Von Knorring 🗞️ News: games2gether raised €4.5M in Series A led by Griffin Gaming Partners to scale its platform that enables studios to co-create games with players, strengthening community engagement and improving game development through real-time player insights. | LinkedIn

📇 Company: Homaio 🏷️ Sectors: FinTech, CleanTech 🔍 Description: Homaio is an investment platform enabling retail investors to access carbon allowance markets and other financial instruments tied to the energy transition, traditionally reserved for institutional players. 💻 Website: Homaio 📍 HQ City: Paris 🧗 Round: Seed 💰 Amount Raised: €3.6M 🏦 Investors: RAISE Ventures, Groupe Eren, XAnge, Redstone, Business Angels 👨💼👩💼 Founder: Valentin Lautier 🗞️ News: Homaio has raised €3.6M to expand access for retail investors to financial markets, driving the energy transition. The round includes new investors RAISE Ventures and Groupe Eren alongside existing backers XAnge and Redstone, who increased their participation. Founded in 2023, Homaio initially opened access to the European carbon allowance market (EUAs), an €800B market central to EU climate policy, attracting thousands of users across 30+ countries. With this funding, the company plans to expand beyond carbon markets into broader energy transition assets, including international emissions systems and electrification-related markets. Homaio aims to build the financial infrastructure to channel private capital at scale toward decarbonization and energy sovereignty. | XAnge

📇 Company: Flotte 🏷️ Sectors: E-commerce & Retail 🔍 Description: Sustainable fashion brand designing colorful, recycled rainwear and lifestyle outerwear, combining technical performance with eco-friendly materials and a strong direct-to-consumer + wholesale model. 💻 Website: Flotte 📍 HQ City: Paris 🧗 Round: Seed 💰 Amount Raised: €3M 🏦 Investors: Akiles, Time4, Daphni 👨💼👩💼 Founders: Lyly Wu, Mickaël Pan 🗞️ News: Flotte raised €3M to accelerate retail expansion, international growth, and product development. The profitable brand—known for its recycled, colorful rainwear—plans to expand its store network (including a new opening in Lyon), strengthen its omnichannel strategy (500+ retailers + DTC), and scale new collections while keeping founder control. | Fusacq, LinkedIn

📇 Company: Topograph 🏷️ Sectors: FinTech, RegTech, AI & Machine Learning 🔍 Description: Topograph builds a real-time data infrastructure layer that connects directly to official company registries and transforms unstructured legal documents into standardized, traceable data for compliance workflows (KYB, AML, onboarding). 💻 Website: Topograph 📍 HQ City: Paris 🧗 Round: Seed 💰 Amount Raised: €2M 🏦 Investors: Seedcamp, Kima Ventures, Motier Ventures, Better Angle, Drysdale Ventures 👨💼👩💼 Founders: Pierre-Henri Janssens, Emmanuel Scharff, Hugo Dellinger 🗞️ News: Topograph has raised €2M in seed funding to build a real-time infrastructure layer for accessing and structuring company registry data. Rather than relying on aggregated databases, the startup connects directly to official registers across jurisdictions and converts raw documents into standardized, API-accessible data. This approach enables financial institutions and fintechs to move from periodic compliance checks to continuous monitoring, improving data freshness, traceability, and reliability in KYB and AML processes. Positioned as an infrastructure provider rather than a front-end tool, Topograph integrates into existing compliance stacks to support use cases such as merchant onboarding, beneficial ownership verification, and regulatory monitoring. The company aims to progressively connect company registries globally. | FinTech Global

📇 Company: Jay&Joy 🏷️ Sectors: FoodTech 🔍 Description: French foodtech company producing plant-based cheese alternatives using fermentation and traditional cheesemaking techniques, with a focus on clean-label, minimally processed products and scalable European distribution. 💻 Website: Jay&Joy 📍 HQ City: Lacroix-Saint-Ouen 🧗 Round: Seed 💰 Amount Raised: €2M 🏦 Investors: Makesense, Beyondinvesting, MINDSTONE, Demea Invest, Vivegan👨💼👩💼 Founders: Eric Jahnke, Mary Jähnke 🗞️ News: Jay&Joy raised €2M to accelerate expansion in large-scale retail and strengthen its industrial capabilities, supporting broader distribution of its plant-based cheese products across Europe. | LSA

📇 Company: Blify 🏷️ Sectors: AI & Machine Learning, EdTech, HRTech, SaaS & Enterprise 🔍 Description: Blify is an AI-powered Learning Operating System that embeds personalized training directly into everyday workflows (Slack, Teams, WhatsApp), turning real work moments into continuous learning opportunities. By combining multi-agent AI, contextual content, and just-in-time delivery, it dramatically boosts engagement, retention, and measurable business impact while reducing training costs. 💻 Website: Blify 📍 HQ City: Paris 🧗 Round: Pre-Seed 💰 Amount Raised: €1.8M 🏦 Investors: Ventech, Kima Ventures, Better Angle, NewSchool, Supercapital, Fair Equity, Business Angels, Paul-Louis Caylar, Nicolas Lombard, Matthieu Birach 👨💼👩💼 Founders: Clément Lhommeau, Minh-Tu Hua, Tristan Vié 🗞️ News: Blify raised €1.8M to build an AI-native “Learning Operating System” that integrates training into everyday workflows, aiming to dramatically improve employee engagement and retention compared to traditional corporate learning platforms. | Maddyness, Tech Funding News

📇 Company: Yaarz 🏷️ Sectors: Retail & E-Commerce, SaaS & Enterprise 🔍 Description: Yaarz is a SaaS platform and mobile app that enables artists, producers, and event operators to manage and optimize direct-to-fan sales during live events such as concerts, tours, and festivals. By combining real-time data, payments, inventory management, and click-and-collect, it streamlines event merchandising, boosts revenue, and improves the fan experience. 💻 Website: Yaarz 📍 HQ City: Paris 🧗 Round: Seed 💰 Amount Raised: €1M 🏦 Investors: Sony Music Entertainment France, CNM, Bpifrance, French Fair, Haut-Parleur Production, Business Angels 👨💼👩💼 Founders: Yohan Imakhoukhene, Kevin Muller 🗞️ News: Yaarz raised €1M to accelerate the digitalization of live event merchandising, aiming to simplify and optimize direct-to-fan sales while giving artists and producers greater control over revenue, data, and fan engagement. The funding will support product development, team expansion, and international growth. | LinkedIn

📇 Company: Cleavr 🏷️ Sectors: FinTech, AI & Machine Learning 🔍 Description: Cleavr develops an AI “collaborator” for finance teams that automates the full accounts receivable and collections cycle, from invoice follow-ups to dispute resolution and payment reconciliation. 📍 HQ City: Paris 🧗 Round: Seed 💰 Amount Raised: €1M 🏦 Investors: Kima Ventures, Better Angle, Raphaël Nahum, Régis Samuel, Olivier Brourhant, Business Angels 👨💼👩💼 Founders: Baptiste Nassoy 🗞️ News: Cleavr has raised €1M to accelerate deployment in France and prepare for European expansion starting in 2026. Founded in 2025, the startup builds an AI-powered finance assistant that automates up to 80% of the collections process, including reminders, reconciliation, dispute handling, and debtor interactions across multiple channels (email, phone, SMS). Integrated with company ERPs, the AI manages the full lifecycle from invoicing to payment, dynamically adapting communication strategies and escalating complex cases to human operators when needed. Cleavr reports that clients achieve an average 37% reduction in DSO within weeks. The company is positioning itself within a fast-growing European category of AI-driven finance operations tools focused on receivables and cash-flow optimization. | EU Startups

📇 Company: Kervalion 🏷️ Sectors: MedTech, BioTech, DeepTech 🔍 Description: Medtech startup developing patient-specific 3D-printed bone grafts for dental surgery, enabling simultaneous bone reconstruction and implant placement to reduce treatment time, risks, and complications. 💻 Website: Kervalion 📍 HQ City: Montpellier 🧗 Round: Seed 💰 Amount Raised: €700K 🏦 Investors: Capital Cell, Crowdfunding 👨💼👩💼 Founders: Habib Belaid, Gilles Devillers 🗞️ News: Kervalion raised €700K via Capital Cell to advance its patented 3D-printed bone graft technology, plus another €1.3 million in debt, aiming to simplify dental implant procedures by combining bone reconstruction and implant placement into a single operation. | Business Times

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